MISCELLANEOUS. 265 



observation, some will be removed from their present position and an- 

 nexed to the species constituting genera of larger animals. 



The minuteness of many of the Animalcula is a great obstruction to 

 observation, while rendering them utterly unmanageable for experiment. 



11. MELICERTA RINGENS. Plate XXXVI. Fig. 5. 



This minute animal, which dwells in an artificial tube, will perhaps 

 prove one of the Annelides allied to the Amphitrite. 



It consists of a vermicular body, indistinctly appearing annulated 

 when protruding from its tube, crowned by a curious apparatus, consist- 

 ing of four fans, with a curving ciliated edge. A stump protrudes from 

 one side of the neck or upper part of the body. I could not find anv 

 other. About the centre of the second segment, there is a kind of pul- 

 satory action within the animal. 



The tube, affixed by the lower extremity, tapers upwards, and be- 

 comes at length twice the diameter of the animal. It is composed en- 

 tirely of minute spherules, which are perhaps of artificial formation : and 

 the work may be, possibly, executed after the fashion of the Amphitrite 

 ventilabrum. The lower part is dark brown, the higher and newer part 

 lighter brown or yellowish. 



The animal rises from its retreat within, expanding its broad fans, 

 with their fringes of active cilia, as it issues forth. All the fans incline 

 in the same direction. 



Diameter of the fans above a line, length of the tube two or more. 



Found in fresh-water lakes, affixed to slender vegetable products. 



PLATE XXXVI. 



Fio. 7. Melicerta ringens, enlarged. 



12. CARBASARIA FIMBRIATA. Plate XXXVI. Figs. 6, 7. 



This animal has much resemblance to a Planaria. It is about an 

 eighth of a line in length, and of plump appearance. The anterior ex- 

 tremity fringed with fourteen or fifteen cilia, which are not long, opens 



2L 



